Spotlight

Charri Stratton, director of instructional technology for Putnam City Schools in Oklahoma City, OK, has plenty of experience with mobile carts and their incorporation into classrooms. Stratton oversaw the deployment of the 15,000 iPads and about 375 mobile carts, and has witnessed teachers using the carts in creative ways.

This week at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) National Conference in Los Angeles, Pasco Scientific is unveiling the third edition of “Essential Physics,” a deeply digital curriculum that brings physics concepts to life in ways that text and static images cannot.

The MakerMinded digital platform will connect Ohio students to advanced manufacturing learning experiences. Teachers and students can participate in STEM-related activities, while competing against other participating schools.

Math teachers and others who are attending the National Council of Supervisors in Mathematics (NCSM) annual conference April 3-5 or the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) annual conference April 5-8 can see Casio's new fx-CG500 graphic calculator in action.

Mobile learning is the top priority for K–12 IT leaders, according to the fifth annual K–12 IT Leadership Survey published by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). It’s the first time mobile learning ranked as the highest priority in the survey.

SparkFun Electronics has begun carrying the micro:bit in the United States, starting this month and shipping in early May 2017. The micro:bit — a beginner-friendly, reprogrammable microcontroller — gained popularity after the BBC gave the board to every 11- and 12-year-old student in the United Kingdom to inspire a new generation to pursue innovation in computer science.

The courses are the most recent development between partners itslearning and Gooru and the first phase of integrating 1.7 million high-quality resources and 14,000 collections from Gooru into the itslearning LMS platform. The courses offer assessments and can be customized to support varied instructional models, such as blended learning or project-based learning.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a multinational professional services company, is launching “Access Your Potential,” a five-year, $320 million commitment that will focus on providing tools, training and mentorship to students, educators and guidance counselors across the United States, with the goal of closing the opportunity, education and skills gaps.

A trio of tech entrepreneurs have launched Codeverse, the world’s first “hackable” classroom, studio and vertically integrated technology platform designed to teach children ages 6 to 12 the skill of coding. The studio is scheduled to open in Chicago in July.

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors has authorized a $100,000 performance agreement with Scriyb, a technology startup company based at the Virginia Serious Games Institute, to pioneer a new cloud-based live-streaming teaching platform for online education.

The Smithsonian is collaborating with tech company Lenovo to foster STEAM (science, technology, engineering arts and math) learning in school and after-school programs using the Smithsonian Learning Lab, a free online toolkit to find, customize and share digital museum resources with others.

The largest mobile STEM lab of its kind in the country will be touring Maryland schools to help drive student interests in STEM. The Mobile eXploration Lab, or MXLab for short, will deliver hands-on biology, chemistry, environmental science and other STEM experiences to high schoolers.

Upcoming K–12 Grants

Sponsor: SparkFun
Award: STEM/STEAM-releated prize packages, event and team sponsorships and other types of support
Number of Awards: Varies
Application Deadline: Third Thursday of each month; awards announced on the last business day of each month

Sponsor: Crayola and the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
Award: $2,500 plus $1,000 in Crayola gear
Number of Awards: Up to 20 major prizes, plus one Crayola Classpack for every applicant submitting by the early bird deadline
Application Deadline: June 23 (June 5 for early bird prize)

Sponsor: Toshiba America Foundation
Award: Two categories: Up to $5,000 and more than $5,000
Number of Awards: Not specified
Application Deadline: Up to $5,000 awarded on a rolling basis; Aug. 1 deadline for applications for more than $5,000

Deadline: Ongoing
Award: No more than 10 percent of an organization's annual operating expenses or 25 percent of the total budget for the project being funded; awards have ranged from the hundreds to the millions of dollars.
Number of Awards: Varies
Qualification: Project should "directly serve or impact children living in urban poverty, particularly in the areas of education, family economic stability (including microfinance) and childhood health."

Professional Resources

Across the globe, classrooms are evolving to meet the demands of 21st century education. New classroom design philosophies enable collaborative, project-based, student-centered learning and offer the flexibility to accommodate multiple teaching and learning styles. Technology integrated into the classroom helps engage students in the learning process. Learning Spaces, the new newsletter from the editors of THE Journal, focuses on these critical factors in education, from interactive displays and projectors to tech-enabled furnishings to strategies for implementing more effective learning environments. This electronic newsletter is published twice monthly.

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